


Little green lies

by BoredomBeckons



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Green Lantern - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Identity Reveal, Insecurity, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29245167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoredomBeckons/pseuds/BoredomBeckons
Summary: “It’s a photo of my boyfriend.” Hal declared “He sent me it to keep me warm on those long cold nights when I’m away.”“Bruce Wayne is your boyfriend?” Batman asked incredulously.A dark look crossed the lanterns face at the obvious disbelief in the Bat’s tone. “You got a problem with that Spooky?”“No problem. I’m just fairly confident it isn’t true.”Hal felt a wave of irrational anger flow through him.“Why not? You don’t think I’m good enough to get the attention of a gorgeous billionaire is that it?”Hal was an attractive guy. He was interesting and cool. Knew how to have a good time.He could totally be dating Bruce Wayne.Batman didn’t know shit.
Relationships: Hal Jordan/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 28
Kudos: 258





	1. The lie

Like many things in life, it was Oliver’s fault.

“Fuck Bruce Wayne!” the sharpshooter declared, storming into the common room one quiet afternoon aboard the Watchtower.

“Fuck who now?” Hal enquired, mildly amused by his friends very intense look of rage.

Oliver ground his teeth, flopping down on the couch opposite the Lantern. “Bruce Wayne. He’s a…friend of mine.”

“And you want to fuck him?”

“God no!”

The look of scandalised horror on his face was priceless.

“He’s another billionaire.” Oliver explained. “That’s how I know him. Same circles and all that. Not exactly the same since I’m from Star City and he’s from Gotham…actually like unofficial Gotham royalty really, but we went to school together although we didn’t talk much until recently when…” He paused looking conflicted then shook his head “never mind…the point is every year there is this…stupid competition...”

Hal made a ‘go on’ gesture when Oliver paused for just a little too long and watched his friend groan in distress and embarrassment.

“There’s this stupid competition ok. World’s most eligible Batchelors. It’s just a silly thing where rich unmarried guys send in photos of their selves and then there’s a vote where they are rated in order of attractiveness. It’s superficial and cheesy and no one even takes it seriously.”

Hal was getting the distinct impression Oliver took it seriously. “And I’m guessing you didn’t win?” He teased.

“Shut up…I just…look…” Oliver pulled a very sleek looking phone out of his pocket and began flicking through photographs holding the device up for Hal to see. “This is the photo I submitted.”

Lantern glanced over the image letting out a supportive whistle “Wow Arrow. Looking good.”

He did look good. With the fitted suit and confident yet casual pose the photo could have come straight out of a catalogue.

The other man smiled, his face flushed with pride before darkening again as he took the phone back and flicked to another photo.

“And this is the one Bruce submitted.”

Hal had to close his eyes a second to recalibrate before opening them again and…yep it was still there…hot damn…

“Hot damn.”

Shit, did he say that out loud?

“God damn it.” Oliver shouted dramatically throwing himself face down onto the cushioned seat like a maiden in a renaissance painting as Hal plucked the phone out of his hand to get a better look.

Any compassion Hal might have for his friend was going to have to wait.

Dear Lord this man was attractive!

Much like Oliver, Bruce was wearing what was most likely a very expensive suit. Or at least part of one. If what Hal was looking at could really be described as ‘wearing’.

The man was splayed across an arm chair, shirt unbuttoned to reveal a stomach you could grate cheese on, his jacket shrugged half way off to display wide beautifully toned shoulders, bare legs, long, muscular and on full show since his trousers were God only knows where. A pair of delightfully snug Calvin Klein’s hinted at secrets Hal was sure he’d love to learn and all of this was topped off with the most handsome face Hal had ever seen wearing a charming smile that seemed to be drawing him in and welcoming him to come play.

It was so distracting that the Guardian didn’t even notice Batman’s arrival until the vigilante was directly behind him staring down at the photograph in Hal’s hand with a frown.

“Lantern what the fuck are you looking at?”

Hal startled slightly at being snuck up on and felt his hackles rise; a mixture of his usual tension with Batman and some annoyance directly stemming from being jolted out of a rather nice daydream he had been drifting into staring a certain billionaire.

Most people when faced with confrontation have one of two responses, fight or flight.

Hal had a different set of instincts. Fight or snark.

When it came to Batman it was a toss up over which he would go for.

Fuelled partly by his irritation at being interrupted and partly by embarrassment at what exactly he had been interrupted doing Hal settled on snark as his strategy of choice today.

Waggling his eyebrows lewdly and projecting far more confidence than he really felt Hal held the phone up for Batman to see “It’s a photo of my boyfriend.” He declared “He sent me it to keep me warm on those long cold nights when I’m away.”

A strange array of emotions crossed the vigilantes face, which was impressive since most of it was covered.

“Bruce Wayne is your boyfriend?” he asked incredulously. Oliver had mentioned Wayne was Gotham royalty so it was no great shock Batman recognised him from the photograph. It did make this a little harder though.

A dark look crossed the Lanterns face at the obvious disbelief in the Bat’s tone. “You got a problem with that Spooky?”

“No problem. I’m just fairly confident it isn’t true.”

Hal felt a wave of irrational anger flow through him.

“Why not? You don’t think I’m good enough to get the attention of a gorgeous billionaire is that it?”

Hal was an attractive guy. He was interesting and cool. Knew how to have a good time.

He could totally be dating Bruce Wayne.

Batman didn’t know shit.

Batman opened his mouth as if to reply, then closed it again, then opened it, closed it…

Hal didn’t think he had ever seen Batman at loss for words before but there he was, right in front of him. That felt kind of good.

At last, the Bat found his tongue again.

“Wayne can’t speak to the same person twice without every gossip rag in Gotham running a story on it. I’m pretty sure if he were seeing someone, I would know about it.”

That made sense.

“We’re keeping it a secret for now.” Hal declared firmly. “Avoiding media attention.” It occurred to him that he could probably just come clean and pass the whole thing off as a joke but the idea that Batman thought he couldn’t land a hot rich boyfriend made Hal’s blood boil.

So instead, in true Hal Jordan fashion he doubled down.

“We’ve actually been together a while.” He stated matter of fact. ‘In for a penny’ as they say. “We met when he…hired me to take him for a flight in a high-speed jet.” Rich people did stuff like that right? “Like an adrenaline experience thing.”

The vigilante seemed a little stunned, like he wasn’t sure how to respond.

Then after a tense moment Batman seemed to back down, lips twitching like he might smile but was trying not to. “Well, he is a well known thrill seeker. Supposedly spends his time on high adrenaline sports like racing cars, potholing and snowboarding. So, I guess your story is plausible.”

Hal felt a mixture of smug satisfaction and relief, he had totally pulled that off.

In his usual overdramatic way Batman turned and marched back out of the room; off to lurk on a rooftop or something and Hal slumped back down into his seat.

Giving the photo of Bruce Wayne another look over; the lovely image was so distracting that it took him a few seconds to notice Oliver who was now sat bolt upright on the seat across from him, eyes wide and his head turning back and forth between Hal and the door where Batman had just exited.

Obviously, he had been present for the whole thing. Damn it.

Hal rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry I lied about dating your friend. Bats just gets on my nerves you know?”

Oliver opened his mouth to speak then closed it again and Hal snorted at the similarity to Batman just a few minutes earlier. “What?” He asked, discretely sending a copy of Bruce Wayne’s picture to himself before handing Oliver’s phone back.

Oliver continued to gawk, clearly at odds with himself over whatever he wanted to say before finally shaking his head.

“Nothing.”


	2. Digging deeper

“So, how’s your boyfriend?” Batman asked about a week later when they were sharing watch duty.

Hal was prepared for the question.

Not that he had anticipated the question. Everything he knew about Batman suggested the guy wasn’t interested in idle chitchat or gossip and Hal had thought that after their initial conversation the other man would forget about the whole subject and never mention it again.

The thing is after staring at Bruce Wayne’s photo for longer than he was proud to admit, the Lantern had finally given in and pulled up his computer to find out a little more about the gorgeous billionaire he had claimed to be dating. There was a lot to be found. Several hours later Hal was several miles deep in a blackhole of Bruce Wayne videos, news articles, interviews and photographs.

By the time he emerged, Hal was ready to consider himself something of an expert on Bruce Wayne.

So, he hadn’t expected the question. But he was undoubtedly prepared for it.

“Bruce? He’s good. Got a charity auction tonight. Probably gonna buy some new paintings for his mansion. He loves art you know?”

Hal once again felt a smug satisfaction at the surprise on Batman’s face. Clearly the guy thought he was gonna catch him out with that question.

Bring it fucker I’m ready.

“I think I read something about that. It’s for impoverished children, right?”

“Animal shelters.” Hal corrected confidently.

“Ah, right.”

“There’s a galla for the children next week. He’s very caring. Does so much charity work. It’s no wonder you mixed them up.”

Batman turned back to his screen, his shoulders shaking gently in what Hal might have though was a laugh if Batman were capable of humour. “My mistake.”

…

It became a somewhat regular thing after that. Not too often exactly. But every now and then Batman would ask about how things were going with Hal and Bruce.

Hal was getting quite invested in the narrative, embellishing his fake relationship with all sorts of fun details. Nothing so elaborate that he would be caught out of course. He was smart enough to keep his lies in order. But he was having some fun with it. Creating the kind of romance, he had always secretly dreamed of.

…

“We had a picnic in his conservatory.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah. It’s this beautiful glass dome. I cooked. A couple of dishes I picked up when I was traveling with the air force. I’ve always liked cooking, and he loves good food so it works out. We packed a hamper and set it up just before dusk, ate as the Sun went down then laid there under the stars.”

Batman gave him a curious head tilt that Hal was beginning to see more and more from him recently.

“Sounds nice.”

“It was.”

…

“We went to Sicily for the weekend. Flew out on his private plane to a little airport a friend of mine owns. He dressed down in jeans and a hoody so people wouldn’t recognise him and we just walked around enjoying the sights.”

Hand in hand, Hal thought to himself wistfully; no rush to be anywhere else, or with anyone else.

“Well, Sicily is pretty nice this time of year.”

Hal twisted his swivel chair to stare the other man down with a raised eyebrow.

“Aside from missions, have you ever even been out of Gotham?”

Batman smirked.

“Not recently.”

…

“He’s teaching me to dance.”

Hal actually was learning to dance. Sadly, he was learning from a regular teacher and not his fake boyfriend. Too many videos of Bruce twirling his dates across the dancefloor at parties had stirred up a yearning in Hal. He wanted to be the one on that arm, spinning and swaying together. God how he wanted that.

“You any good?”

“I’m getting better.”

…

“We had a movie marathon, just cuddled together in his tv room. He has a full-scale movie theatre in his mansion too; but the tv room was more intimate.” In his minds eye Hal was picturing popcorn and mugs of hot chocolate with cream but he didn’t feel the need to share every little detail with the other hero.

“What did you watch?”

“Moulin Rouge, Chicago and La La Land.”

“You like musicals?” Batman grinned. He looked pleased for some reason.

“Yeah. Not as much as he does though. He had a Broadway karaoke party once you know? Should do another one. I can show off my Le Mis repertoire.”

“I’m sure that would be quite the sight.”

…

“He has a party tomorrow. Celebrating Wayne Enterprises 60-year anniversary and all the projects they’ve funded through it to help Gotham. Lots of big faces are going to be there.”

“Are you going to be there?”

It was a fair question.

According to Hal’s stories the two of them had been together well over six months at this point. Long enough for it to be considered official. By that logic he should be attending an event like that as Bruce’s date.

It was a perfectly reasonable and fair question.

It wasn’t Batman’s fault that Hal’s brain was a dick.

Conjuring up images of Tanya May who had been so embarrassed when her friends discovered she was dating the poor kid who wore hand me down clothes that she cried and refused to ever talk to him again.

Of Billy Anderson who was never ready to come out of the closet on the arm of Hal Jordan, but practically skipped out just two months later with his new wealthy, successful, neurologist boyfriend.

Of the Colonels daughter who would sneak out to meet with him every Friday night but refused to even look at him at the stations Christmas dance.

It wasn’t Batman’s fault that Hal had gotten way too invested in this whole stupid thing.

This moment had been building for a while, Hal realised.

That as time went on, all the confidence he’d had at that start had begun to fade.

Somehow, he’d managed to reduce himself to nothing more than a dirty little secret in his own fantasy romance story. Even his fake boyfriend didn’t want to be seen with him.

God he was pathetic.

What the fuck had he been thinking? Bruce Wayne probably wouldn’t give him a second glance if they met in real life.

And to muddle things even further, with everything he had learned about the man, all his charity work, all his interviews, the way he treated people, the benefits he offered all his employees even when he didn’t strictly need to; some small part of Hal was offended on Bruce’s behalf. Offended at the suggestion that Bruce would treat a lover the way Hal’s lies were making it seem he was being treated.

Bruce was good. He wouldn’t do that.

Unless Hal really was just that shameful.

The hurt bubbled up inside of him and spilled over.

“My boyfriend isn’t ashamed of me.” Hal snapped, aiming for rage and instead sounding pained.

Batman flinched back, looking startled. “What? I never said…”

“My boyfriend is not ashamed of me!” Hal shouted again, hitting angry this time. “I’m not some fucking secret he’s hiding…that’s not…” He floundered for a moment. Unsure how to go on. “Fuck you!” He settled on at last turning around and storming away.

This whole thing had been a mistake.

…

Hal stopped talking about Bruce Wayne after that.

Batman stopped asking.


	3. The truth

Hal ignored the knocking on his door.

He didn’t want visitors.

He didn’t want to talk.

He didn’t want to justify his stupid emotions.

He didn’t want to face the reality that he was somehow grieving the loss of a relationship he never even had with a man he had never even met.

Hal just wanted to lay here and wallow.

When he finally stopped lying to Batman, Hal had thought he would be fine. He hadn’t even made up some pointless break up story to round things out. He had just stopped talking about it and let the whole thing fade away like mist in the wind. For three weeks he had been fine. He’d held it together.

Then this morning the Lantern had woken up and just…couldn’t.

Couldn’t move. Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t face the world.

He had ignored the League meeting he was meant to be at. Ignored his communicator for the first three rings, then finally conceded on the fourth and answered just long enough to confirm he was alive and not feeling well before hanging up.

Now he was ignoring the pounding at his door.

“Hal, please open up.”

Batman. Why Batman? Hal groaned, rolling out of bed at last and plodding his way across his apartment, probably looking even worse than he felt. At least it wasn’t Superman with his over peppiness, Hal could not face that right now.

“What?” He demanded, swinging the door open with a glare. Better get this over with.

The vigilante stood there awkwardly staring at him before letting out a deep sigh. “Hal…I need to tell you something.”

Hal just continued to stare, too tired to even ask what.

‘Tell’ may not have been the correct word. Batman apparently decided ‘show’ would be better.

So, Hal stood and watched as Batman removed his cowl.

For a while it was like time was frozen, and if any telepaths happened to be in the vicinity and decided to take a peek at Hal Jordan’s thoughts, they would have probably heard a sound akin to the dial-up tone followed by a far too calm voice mussing ‘Hu…would ya look at that’.

Hal slammed the door shut and plodded back to bed.

The knocking started up again.

Hal ignored it.

……..

Batman was Bruce Wayne.

Hal was an idiot.

His first instinct was to be angry. God how he wanted to be angry. He wanted to scream and shout and put all the blame on Batman. On Bruce.

He wanted to hate him.

But he couldn’t.

No matter how much he tried he couldn’t muster the energy for that kind of rage.

Hal was the one who lied. The one who had spent months concocting that stupid fantasy relationship. The one who had made a complete fool out of himself.

He wanted to feel angry but he couldn’t. He didn’t have enough emotion left for that.

All he felt was a deep burning humiliation.

….

“Hal?”

The lantern blinked up at Batman, who was now standing in the door of his bedroom.

“How did you get in here?”

“I can pick locks.”

Hal let out a deep sigh and turned over to face the wall instead.

“Of course, you can.”

The silence stretched on long enough that Hal was beginning to suspect Batman had done that disappearing thing he does but couldn’t bring himself to turn back over and check.

A light tap from something being set on his bedside table killed those hopes and Batman spoke up, sounding closer.

“So…” Batman mused “We’ve been dating for a while now…” His smile was audible.

He was laughing! He was here in Hal bedroom which he had broken into, when all Hal wanted was to be left alone, and he was fucking laughing.

Oh, now Hal was angry!

Why had he taken the mask off? Why had he told him? Why couldn’t he have just ignored it? Why couldn’t he just pretend it hadn’t happened and let Hal keep whatever fragment of dignity he still retained. The bastard had come here to gloat!

“Fuck you!” Hal screamed, jumping to his feet and coming face to face with a bare face Bruce Wayne; his absent mask now resting next to Hal’s bedside lamp.

Seeing that handsome face up close after months of staring at photos would have had Hal weak at the knees in any other scenario but now it barely phased him. He needed to say his piece before the righteous fury fizzled back into shame.

“How could you fucking do that to me?” He screeched “You just let me carry on and never said anything! For months! You let me make a fool out of myself! I’ll bet you had a real laugh, didn’t you? Stupid fucking Hal and his stupid bullshit stories and delusional crush. I’ll bet that was hilarious to you wasn’t it?”

Batman just stood there, letting him shout. A stark juxtaposition of the man Hal had lied about and the one he had lied to.

“Well?” Hal demanded, nearly shaking “Was it funny to you?”

“It was a little funny.” Batman / Bruce admitted.

There it was. Confirmation.

The wind abruptly left Hals sails and he slumped down.

The shame was back, and all he could do was nod numbly. Yeah, it must have been so damn funny from Bruce’s perspective. Hal Jordan. What a fucking joke. “Yeah, funny.” He mumbled.

“Let me take you on a date.”

Hal stared at the other man; certain he must have misheard. “What?”

“That’s why I’m here.” Bruce pleaded looking guilty. “Why I revealed my face. I’m sorry I tried to be funny a moment ago. It was badly timed. I like you Hal. I really like you.” He wasn’t laughing this time. “This whole thing. It was funny, at first. Then as things went on…the things you said…I liked it. I want it. You’re sweet, and romantic and creative and brash and I think we could have something good together if we wanted. Let me take you on a date. A real one.”

Hal stood there in his ragged pyjama bottoms and yesterday’s t-shirt, his hair matted, eyes red and hands shaking. It was surreal, looking at the stupidly handsome man in front of him. A man he had been fantasising about for so long he worried if perhaps even this was just a daydream. A desperate fantasy cooked up in his brain to comfort him as the humiliation of reality drove him insane.

“Put your mask back on.” He pleaded.

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to punch you in your pretty face, and I’ll feel less guilty about it if I can’t see it.”

Bruce chuckled, stepping closer and easily catching the half-hearted punch Hal swung at him. “You think I’m pretty?”

“I think you’re an asshole.” Fight or snark. It had always worked before.

Bruce had both of his hands pinned now, crowding close to him and trapping them between their bodies. Hal wasn’t sure he minded.

“A gorgeous asshole. According to you.”

“Such a jerk.”

“I want to kiss you. Can I?”

“Fuck you.”

“Maybe later. Kiss first.” Bruce smiled sweetly, waiting patiently for permission.

Hal still wasn’t convinced this wasn’t a fever dream, but if it was then screw it, he was going to make the most of it. “Sure. But only so I don’t have to look at your smug smile anymore.”

It turned out feeling that smug smile pressed against his own lips wasn’t much better but Hal couldn’t bring himself to care, leaning into the other man’s arms and waddling awkwardly until they both fell together onto his bed. When did he last wash his sheets? Not recently enough. Damn it.

“I was impressed how much you knew about me.” Bruce admitted between kisses not seeming to care about the linens.

“I was very thorough in my research.” Hal admitted, a little less embarrassed now that his interest was apparently returned. Still a solid eight on the embarrassment scale though. God, he had been stupid.

“You made one key mistake though.”

“What mistake?”

Bruce pulled back a bit, smiling down at him.

“I would never have been able to keep you a secret for that long. I would have been showing you off every chance I got. Let the whole world get jealous of the gorgeous, lovely, kind, funny, intelligent, exciting man I had found.” Every adjective was punctuated with a soft kiss.

Hal flushed with pleasure, feeling somewhat overwhelmed at the flattery. He had to take a deep breath to stop his voice cracking. Definitely a fever dream. He’d wake up tomorrow drowning in sweat, alone and half mad. Only more reason to enjoy the now.

“Is that so?”

“I meant what I said before.” Bruce told him “I’d like to take you on a date.”

“Picnic in the conservatory?”

“Yes. And movies at home, and touring in Sicily, and all the rest. But I was thinking we could go out, out too. If you wanted. Somewhere public. So, it doesn’t feel like we’re hiding away. Dinner maybe?”

“That sounds nice.”

“I hope so.”

“What else?”

“Have you ever seen the muppets live?”

“Marry me.”

When Bruce laughed Hal felt it with his whole body. The sound rumbling through him where they were pressed together. He could definitely get used to that.

A sudden thought occurred to him. “Wait...Oliver knows who you are doesn’t he?”

“He does.”

“I’m gonna kill him.”

That laugh again. So nice.

He was still killing Oliver though. Later. When he was done kissing Bruce.

Next week maybe.


End file.
